Wilson to take his game to St. A’s

Monday

Mar 25, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By John Doylejdoyle@fosters.com

DOVER — It’s a credit to the sport of football that New England boasts a number of small schools with high-quality programs. And it’s a testimony to Dover High School senior Eric Wilson that he found a home at one of them.

Wilson recently signed a letter of intent to play football at St. Anselm College, where he will join the Division II Hawks this fall on a partial scholarship.“I was trying to play at the best level possible,” Wilson said. “At first I was thinking among the Maritime lines, Maine Maritime or Mass Maritime. But then St. A’s gave me the call and I couldn’t turn it down.”

As a tight end, Wilson caught seven passes for 142 yards and a pair of touchdowns last season for the Green Wave. He was a D-II all-state selection as a linebacker with 100 tackles, 9.5 for a loss, two passes knocked down, two fumble recoveries and 2.5 sacks.

He was selected to Foster’s Daily Democrat’s Dream Team as a first-team honoree.“He’s a tremendous role model for all of our kids,” Dover coach Ken Osbon said. “He bought in from Day 1, whatever we thought would make him a better football player, a better student, a better person, he bought into it.”

Osbon said it was Wilson’s off-season work that helped him earn his scholarship.“He attends camps, he’s a great student and pays attention to all the little details that help you to have success,” he said. “He’s applied to some really great schools, but this seemed to be the better fit.”

The Hawks struggled last season, going 2-9 overall and 2-6 in the Northeast-10 Conference, but Wilson sees potential and is eager to help the Hawks turn things around.“They’re a good team,” Wilson said. “I plan to play linebacker, so I’m going to be working as hard as possible to get myself on the field as soon as possible. I want to bring whatever I can to the field to help the program out.”

Wilson said he wants to study computer science at St. Anselm, though he hasn’t yet decided on any particular career path.“I haven’t really thought that far ahead,” he said. “I was leaning toward engineering before, but I think computer science is what I want to do.”

St. Anselm is a popular landing spot for New Hampshire football standouts. Joining Wilson in the current recruiting class is St. Thomas running back Ryan Monette and Lebanon linebacker/running back Dylan Drew. Former Spaulding D-lineman Dillon Couture and St. Thomas linebacker Jared Dickie are listed on the Hawks’ spring roster. “He knew what he wanted to go into,” Osbon said about Wilson. “He put himself in position, with the schools he applied to, to have some choices. And the fact that he’s a great student, he did a great job of putting himself in the position where he got to make the choice, not have the choice dictated to him.”